


Wings of Freedom

by ShizueKaryan



Series: The Ancient Field [1]
Category: Dota 2
Genre: Character Lore, Dota 2 Heroes, One Shot, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26341996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShizueKaryan/pseuds/ShizueKaryan
Summary: Imprisoned. Enslaved. Will Viper the Netherdrake break the chain and become a hero of The Ancient Field?
Series: The Ancient Field [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1914154
Kudos: 1





	Wings of Freedom

**Author's Note:**

> One of my short stories about Dota 2 Heroes' lore and events. Sorry for my bad English, it isn't my native language.

It was 5326 days since I had been imprisoned in the cage.

Perhaps I have lived most of my life behind these grids. Long enough to memories about the world became something vague in my mind. My cage is put in a large cave; no, more exactly, the whole of this region is a huge cavern deep beneath the ground - Nether Reaches.

There isn’t anything good down here. Only savage, brutality and oppressive. The only connection between this place and the world on the surface is just vents that are always full of poison and smell unpleasant stench. In fact, I used to live in caves before, too, but those are sparkling caves with stalactites and underground green valleys, it totally isn’t dark and bleak like this place.

I am Viper the Netherdrake.

In old times, millions years ago, when the world was still unstable, my Netherdrake race had raged all over the underground caverns of this underworld; until the Earth changed and our sparkling caves were totally buried by solid and stones. We quickly found out that the world on the surface was more green and beautiful many times. 

Ha! Come back to reality. Now I’m lying in an iron cage, looking at the wet cave walls through bars. So what is the reason that I have to stay like a dead man in this place while my previous world is so beautiful?

The thick iron door on my right side opens heavily. A very short man comes inside - a man with large horns, holds a short scepter and smells stinky, to be exactly. This is Pugna - Grandmaster of the Arts of Oblivion - the most powerful wizard of the underworld.

He is also the man who imprisoned me into this cage.

Pugna comes near my cage, opens the door carefully and signs me to go outside. I glance at him, do not say anything, get up ploddingly and crawl through the tiny cage door to get outside. Netherdrakes like me are originally a legless reptile, we do anything from walking to grasping by our wings. Pugna puts a chain on my neck. When I first came here, I hated being chained like this; hundreds of times I tried to tear it off, but it only tightened on my neck. Many times later, I learned that it was made from a special vine with roots crawling on the surface but the trunk grew underground, and it’s unbreakable. So, now each time someone brings that chain into the chamber, I accept to let him chain my neck. 

I used to be a free Netherdrake, lived my childhood peacefully in the rich land of swamp. But when the Oblivion attacked on our land, everything collapsed in a couple of seconds. They captured many young Netherdrakes, including me; and brought us to this dark cavern. Almost all the strong Netherdrakes became slaves, working very hard on underground fields or being used for freight. Few others, like me, were chosen by the wizards, imprisoned in iron cages as their “pets”. Most of the other Netherdrakes couldn’t suffer this anaerobic land, they slowly died; now only I left alone, languishing until today.

“Come! Today we will go to the eastern cavern!”, Pugna speaks up after tightening the noose on my neck. 

Pugna always sees me as his pet. I obediently follow him, try to spread my tired wings and fly. Only the rare time I am allowed to go out like this, I can be comfortable a bit. The cage is too small so I have to fold my wings. Even when I come out of the cage, I still can’t comfortably spread the wings under this winding cavern. 

Honestly, sometimes I think I have to run away from this cramped life, but when I see myself too small and weak, can not stand against the whole Oblivion’s wizard army, I give up. I suffer the life of a pet. I thought I would live behind these iron bars for the rest of my life. 

But, this is the day that my life was changed forever.

Pugna brings me to the eastern - the part of cavern that I have never known before. The landscape appears before me really makes me overwhelmed. This place is totally different from the dark, narrow and stinky caves I have stayed in for many years. This place has a large arch, a clear lake in the middle and many green trees. Specially, on the ceiling of the cavern, there is a skylight that connects to the upper world; though it is covered by interlaced vines, it is still enough to see the dim sky with weak sunlight illuminated. It has been so many years since I saw the sun again. A feeling of freshness and extremely softness permeate in my soul.

While I am still half-closing my eyes to enjoy the fresh air, a group of wizards approaches me and Pugna. They are magicians of Nether Reaches, who Pugna is their leader. I guess they come to train magic as usual. In the past, I had been taken by Pugna to many magic practice sessions of Oblivion wizards. Perhaps due to the feature of this humid and stinky cavern, their spells seem to be “dirty”. Especially the Nether Blast spell of Pugna, it looks like a pile of shit is exploding. I always hate this. Because sometimes they use me as a dummy to test their magic. 

“Is this flying snake Viper this big? How nice! You really have a valuable pet, Pugna!” A young wizard reaches near me, stares at me and turns to Pugna, says. 

Saying that, he raises his hand in order to rub my head, but he is too short, plus I’m not on the ground but flying near the floor, so he can’t touch me. I stare back at him and bare my teeth, making him step back. For Pugna, he forces me to call him master, directly rules me, I am somewhat afraid, but these young magicians, I have nothing to yield them. 

“My lord, why do you bring him here?”, another wizard stares at me then speaks softly to Pugna, he whispers but I can still hear him.

“It’s harmless! Just a stupid pet!”, Pugna swipes his hands, “I had brought him to hundreds of our magic practice sessions!”

“But… this time…. It’s this place….”

Pugna doesn’t notice the word of that young wizard. He claps his hand to sign everyone to gather at the edge of the lake to start practicing magic. Today, he teaches them to create a magic ward that can hurt anyone using spells nearby. 

Magic is so fantastic. What if I also have it?

*

Nightfall. Honestly at this place, night or day is the same, it’s always dark, only some burned torches lighten the caverns. I am brought back to the iron cage again, return to my cramped corner.

But tonight, each time I close my eyes, I imagine the green and fresh atmosphere, clear air and the sound of singing birds, soft sunlight on a clear water surface. Memory of a far away marsh, with tall mossy mountains, with old citadels loom behind tropical forest,.... My homeland of the far far days. 

Suddenly, I feel I’m going to cry. Then my eyes blur. For a long time, my emotions completely disappeared; living too long in misery, I became brazen with it. I used to give up trying to escape, accepted to be a prisoner in this place in all of my life. But right now, the dream about roving freely comes back to me more intensely than ever.

I roll over then fall into sleep from an unknown time. Memories and realities interwoven in my head. I don’t know if I’m conscious or dreaming. Past midnight, I wake up when I feel my whole body is hot and my throat is burned. 

Urg! What’s happened to me? I feel very uncomfortable inside my body. Sickness? No, after too many years I have resistance to the dirty and stinky place. My throat is very hurt, it seems like fire burns from inside.

_Water…. I need water….._

I try to get up and call the guard, but he doesn’t seem to hear anything but deep sleep. 

“Water… Please give me some water….”, I try to speak out of the cage with my hoarse voice. 

The guard wakes up, but he doesn’t care about me. He swears something and goes back to sleep immediately. I’m going to die. My body is hot, especially my throat, it seems to be torn. I don’t know what’s going on.

I try to split out the substance that was filling my throat. Finally I can get this sputum out and make my throat less hurt a bit. “Sizzle”! I hear a sound of melting metal nearby. Look around, I see a hole at the bottom of my cage, iron is still effervescing. Look carefully, this is the spot that I have just split the sputum. Surprisingly, I split another pile of saliva on the cage, and it immediately absorbs, making another hole. 

An idea flashes in my mind. 

The next morning, I’m back to normal, not fever and sore throat as last night. As usual, I lay in the cage and wait for the guards to bring me some food and water. The hole on the bottom of the cage, I use a rag to hide it from others’ sight. I just hang around in the iron cage the whole this day. Perhaps Pugna will be back in the next few weeks.

The sunset gradually descended. Another day is going to end. I always know it though I can’t see the sky, because of the horn for changing shifts of guards. Normally, I always hate the dark; each time the night falls, when I look at the flickering fire, loneliness and gloom come back to me. But today is different. I wait for the night. Tonight, I have a plan for myself. 

Darkness spreads all around caverns. Citizens of Nether Reaches temporarily stop working, come back to their corner to rest. Main torches are extinguished, only a few flickering fires left on the wall. 

“I can’t live like that anymore! I have to escape from this place!”, I think in my head. The fire reflect glancely in my eyes…. I try my best to act normally when pet caretakers throw the late supper into my cage. This will be the last meal I have to eat in this situation. Tonight, I will break the prison!

I close my eyes to disguise that I’m sleeping. The guards, as usual, only chat with each other and prepare their beds, never care about me. Waiting for them to sleep well, I silently get up and start my plan.

I split my sputum on the cage's bars, hoping that it still works as in the previous night. As expected, the acid in my saliva is corroding the iron bars of the cage holding me. I focus on spitting at a point. My mouth is full of rust but I don’t care; there is only one thought in my head now, it’s how to break this cage as fast as possible and escape outside. 

The iron bars are big and ensure, so it takes me a while to break one. I still can’t believe that my saliva had strong acid enough to melt down iron. I gently slip myself through the hole, escape from the cage that held me for a long time. Look around, I see those guards still sleep deeply. Once they sleep, perhaps only sky collapses can wake them up. But, my next challenge is the prison door, made of monolithic iron and very thick. 

Don’t give up, I continue to the door and use my acid to corrode it. I try to split as much as saliva on the iron block. My throat is dry as desert. This work is much harder than I expected.

Dawn is slowly coming. I can feel it. Looking back at the door, I see it was broken but the hole is still not big enough for me to go through. I’m suddenly confused. My time is nearly up. The morning comes which means that everyone will wake up and discover my escape plan. If I get caught, I will die for sure, or most gently, I will be isolated in a special prison, forever no chance to escape anymore. 

“Freedom, or die!”, I think. Dilemma, now I can’t stop my plan. I have only one choice: Go on! There is no way back. I put all my strength into my wings….

“Slam”!!!! The prison door is broken into two pieces under my wings. The door, which had been pierced by acid, now there is an extra thrust, it can’t stand anymore and collapses. I rush outside. Hearing loud noise, the guards quickly wake up, but the only thing they see is a cage with broken bars and a crushed door.

“Alert! Alert! Escaping prisoner!” 

I hear screams of the guards. Across all corners of the cavern, there are many sounds of shouting and calling upon, but I don’t mind them. I flap my wings to fly, straight to the east. It's just a few days since Pugna brought me to the big cavern in the east so I still can clearly remember the way leads to it. Maybe bringing me there is his biggest mistake.

Guards with spikes and halberds are chasing me. The low and cramped cave makes it impossible for me to fly fast. I fly and gasp. The guards chase right behind me. Many sharp swords and pikes are thrown towards me…. I dodge to avoid, but can’t avoid all of it. But how strange, each time, when a blade or pike prick to my body, it all melts! Not only that, iron armor of guards is also corroded, causing them to panic when they see armor on their body bubbling and fuming. Not only my saliva, but also my skin are covered by extremely acidic poison, which can corrode any metal stuff that contacts it. Now I understand why Pugna never uses an iron chain but vines to tie my neck; he is afraid my skin contacting the iron would cause the chain to corrode and break. This is the ability of our Netherdrake race, it’s always been, I just had been captured when I was too young to know about that. It hasn't been released for a long time, but now I know my abilities.

Pugna, now informed by his guards about my escape, he crazily chases me. I hear his surprised voice when the guards report the situation to him: 

“What the hell?? How in Oblivion can he escape?”

“We are so sorry, my lord! We still don’t know what happened. Suddenly we hear a loud noise, when we wake up we see the cage and the door are broken and the Viper disappears!”

Pugna looks at the corrosions on guards’ armor and weapons. He understands everything immediately. Seems that what he feared most - I have magic - has become true. 

Pugna gets into flutter and chases after me. But he will not make it, because the huge cavern with skylight led to the surface is right in front of me. My eyes lit up radiantly and a smile appears on my mouth. The sun! The sun rises! I can see the beautiful and bright world closer to me than ever!

“Wait! Stop!”

I turn my head to look behind and see Pugna is standing right at the entrance of the cavern. He holds his scepter as he prepares to use some magic on me. Is that Decrepify spell and then the dirty exploding shit again? Or plugging the stinky ward on the ground? Or blood sucking? Now I don’t fear any of his spells anymore.

“You think you can escape from here, Viper?”, Pugna shouts.

“I am not your pet and you are not my master! Ever and never!”, I shout back to him. “There isn’t any prison or cave that can hold me anymore!” 

“A flying snake also dreams of being a wizard? Are you too illusory?”

“I may not become a wizard, but I will turn wizards like you into my pet!”

Pugna is going crazy and rushes towards me. I reflexively turned around, face to face with him. My blood is boiling inside my body now. I am like a wild animal, crazy and fierce. I bare my teeth…. A stream of green poison shoots out from my fangs - perhaps the poison that has accumulated for so long now has the opportunity to release. 

_Viper Strike!_

Pugna takes all of that poison into his body, he is knocked back and collapses. I see Pugna is rolling on the ground. He tries to reach out to me, but it is almost impossible to move because the poison seeps into his blood. His bones and flesh seem to be melted down. In seconds, his skin and flesh turns into a pile of mucus. Pugna writhes in pain, helplessly stares at me, unable to do anything.

I don’t care about it anymore. I use all of my strength to rush to the skylight on the cavern’s ceiling that led to the surface. Behind me, Pugna still screams my name in hopelessness. 

The fresh air and bright light spread all over by body…. The rich green land appears in front of my eyes….

_Free!_

_I am free!_

I turn my head to look back one last time. Pugna’s disciples are pulling stones to close the skylight, preventing me from going inside. My true homeland was destroyed, and now they don’t let me revenge for it. Fine, I have no intention of going back. There is still a place for me to go: The Ancient Field. I speak loudly for all Nether Reaches’ citizens:

“There will not be any forces that can imprison me anymore! Pugna! One day I will become a much greater hero than you! Absolutely it! You can bury the entrance, but I will find another hidden passage to get inside! I will come back to the cavern where I reign as the most powerful magician of that place! And the world will know that it had a new master!”

And then, I soar, spread my free wings and fly in the wide sky.

_My wings are free, forever!_


End file.
